A total of 775 troops have now been deployed to Iraq since the President’s initial statement of “No American Boots Will Be on Iraqi Soil”. At this point we don’t really understand what motives the President has because obviously more and more American troops are getting deployed. Though we understand the current crisis happening in Iraq, the majority of Americans want the President to switch his focus to the current crises happening on U.S. soil. What do you think?
[ Washington Post Excerpt Via Karen DeYoung & Thomas Gibbons-Neff]
–“On June 16, Obama authorized 275 troops to protect the embassy. Although most were sent immediately to Iraq, about 100 remained in Kuwait. Those 100 have now been deployed along with the 200 new troops.
Separately, Obama also authorized the deployment of 300 troops to Iraq to train and assist Iraqi forces fighting Islamist militants and to set up joint operation centers in Baghdad and in northern Iraq. Those troops are tasked with assessing the situation on the ground, and the capabilities of both the Iraqi army and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The State Department also said Monday that it is relocating additional personnel from the embassy to consulates in Basra, in the south, and Irbil, in the north, following initial relocations in mid-June.
The embassy “remains open and will continue to engage daily with Iraqis and their elected leaders,” State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said in a statement. Psaki said a “substantial majority” of embassy officials “will remain in place” and that there are no plans to evacuate the embassy.
ut other officials said that the new military deployments were intended to protect the embassy and other facilities and to ensure escape routes if evacuation becomes necessary.
The current U.S. assessment is that Baghdad itself is not in immediate danger from advancing ISIS forces. Fighting continued Monday in Tikrit, about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad, and there were reports of mortar attacks outside a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, about 35 miles south of Tikrit. At least nine people were wounded, a Samarra city official told the Associated Press.
Iraq’s newly elected parliament is due to hold its first meeting Tuesday, and U.S. officials have pressed the majority Shiites, and Sunni and Kurdish minorities, to quickly choose a government to unite the country as it confronts the militants.
Although the Iraqi constitution sets a timetable lasting for at least six weeks to choose the prime minister, president and parliamentary speaker, U.S. officials would like to see all three chosen this week. The Obama administration has said it is up to Iraqis to decide whether they want to retain Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in office, but it has made clear that it views Maliki, a Shiite, as divisive.
Sunnis and Kurds have said they will not participate in another government headed by Maliki, who has been prime minister since 2006.”–
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